Moreover, those stats don't even include people who just open and close their inbox without even reading their notifications, just to make the unread indicator go away.

Hi, that's (partially) me. I like to think of the indicator as 'there's something new in your inbox', not as a 'there's something unread in your inbox'. So, I do open my inbox from time to time, check the new stuff, and if it's nothing urgent, I close my inbox again. No need for the bright red indicator to stay, and no need for me to actually read the notifications or mark them as read in a separate manual step.

Added on top of that, especially with this new functionality, I might end up deliberately marking some read notifications as 'unread' again, in a 'I need to check back on this in 6-8' reminder kind of way. I really, really don't want an indicator pretending there's something new to be seen to be there for the entire 6-8 though, yet this screenshot confirms that the latter would be the case and the indicator would stay.

So, I hereby request you to please still make the indicator go away once I have made the conscious decision to open the inbox but not mark as 'read' any of the messages there, I don't want to be notified of old, unread things, only of truly new things. I can catch up the old unread stuff later if need be, but it's nothing urgent and it's not something I need a bright red indicator for.

Moreover, those stats don't even include people who just open and close their inbox without even reading their notifications, just to make the unread indicator go away.

Hi, that's (partially) me. I like to think of the indicator as 'there's something new in your inbox', not as a 'there's something unread in your inbox'. So, I do open my inbox from time to time, check the new stuff, and if it's nothing urgent, I close my inbox again. No need for the bright red indicator to stay, and no need for me to actually read the notifications or mark them as read in a separate manual step.

Added on top of that, especially with this new functionality, I might end up deliberately marking some read notifications as 'unread' again, in a 'I need to check back on this in 6-8' reminder kind of way. I really, really don't want an indicator pretending there's something new to be seen to be there for the entire 6-8 though, yet this screenshot confirms that the latter would be the case and the indicator would stay.

So, I hereby request you to please still make the indicator go away once I have made the conscious decision to open the inbox but not mark as 'read' all of the messages there, I don't want to be notified of old, unread things, only of truly new things. I can catch up the old unread stuff later if need be, but it's nothing urgent and it's not something I need a bright red indicator for.